Robert "Rob" K. Swihart

As professor and Department Head for Forestry and Natural Resources, I have the opportunity to work with a wonderful group of dedicated faculty, staff and students and visit with leaders in natural resources science and management in Indiana, nationally, and globally.

In addition to my work, I enjoy basketball, golf, my pets, and spending time with my lovely wife, but not necessarily in that order.

My research interests include effects of habitat fragmentation on wildlife, plant-herbivore interactions, population and community ecology of mammals, spatial ecology, and wildlife damage management. I rely on a combination of mathematical, experimental, and comparative approaches to address the importance of spatial structure for behavioral and ecological processes affecting the conservation and management of vertebrates, with a goal of developing quantitative tools for informing policy makers and stakeholders of the consequences of land-use change for biodiversity and species conservation. My research spans levels of biological organization from individuals to communities and spatial scales ranging from microsites to continents. Many of my interests are inherently interdisciplinary, which has led to strong collaborative ties with mathematicians, statisticians, specialists in remote sensing, botanists, parasitologists, endocrinologists, chemists, hydrologists, economists, demographers, and social scientists.